''Theft'' is the name of a statutory offense in many countries across the globe and the punishment for such a criminal act varies among them. Despite deterrents, bank robberies in the US banks and elsewhere go on for decades and the court keep sending the criminals to the jail to reform them. When they come out on bail, they keep cool for sometime and again engage in stealing, robberies, etc. They are back to square one in the slammer. In India, in the last couple of decades a gang of well-trained thieves are after India's centuries - old metal idols, artifacts, etc because these antiques fetch a huge bundle on the international market. In Tamil Nadu state, in the last decade or so, it as become a serious offense and the govt. is taking special steps to curb them. The frequency of such incidences is a real cause of concern among temple lovers. In the midst of such painful temple thefts, some weird things do happen. Reported below are a few incidents of Hindu temple thefts of which some are weird and uncanny, and may give you a good laugh. Some are committed due to poverty and some are done out of arrogance and lack of contentment on the part of criminals..
Above image: A ‘pious and devoted Hindu ’thief,
knowing well ''what he is doing is absolutely wrong'' on the holy temple premises in the dark hours of night, stole five
idols, (three made of Panchaloha and the rest of brass, from the shrine) by way of invocation to god
with cool mind. Overwhelmed with a blend of bhakti and audacity he had stolen the same God's idols and also the offerings in the Hundi (donation box). His hilarious actions were recorded on
temple CCTV cameras. The theft took place on the night of April 20 2018, after a
burglar scaled the walls of Sri Azhagu Sundara Perumal temple at Seevalaperi, Tirunelveli Dist. and decamped with the figurines. Because the temple Hundi had been broken too and cash stolen, the investigating police thought that it was the work of at least two buglers in side the temple. It was a typical ''one man show'' with the culprit wearing no shirt. However, he was smart and had his face covered to conceal his identity - to avoid getting caught. Interestingly, the God-fearing thief, after his clean sweep removed his slippers and worshiped before the sanctum for five seconds. He then went to the shrine dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi, and offered prayers. Upon his successful mission, he wore his slippers, got out of the temple stealthily and disappeared in the dark. Luck was in favor of him, fortunately, there were no stray dogs close to the temple. If they were there, he would have been in the soup. The police are after this pious thief!! When he comes out of the closet to sell the idols, he may be caught in the police's dragnet. https://www.dtnext.in/News/TamilNadu/2018/04/25005154/1070205/Devoted-thief-offers-prayers-before-stealing-idols-.vpf
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| God-fearing thief.dtnext.in/News |
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| idols stolen from Udaipur Rahasthanudaipurtimes.com |
Above image: 20 idols stolen over a span of just three days? . On 16 Feb. 2016 in Udaipur, Rajasthan, a daring idol smuggling gang targeted two temples and ransacked
them in three days time. Their loot - 20 idols were removed from Aadinath Digambar
Jain community temple and Jagannath Rai temple belonging to Swarnakar
Medh Samaj were the victims. 15 Ashtdhatu idols were robbed from the Jain temple
situated at Badnor-ki-Haveli. The entire city was in a state of shock because some of these idols were estimated to be
over 300-years-old for which the devotees had been offering prayer and puja for a pretty long time.
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In November, 2019 Durga Bhavani Temple Abids, Hyderabad, Telengana was busy with lots of Hindu devotees. Around 6.30 evening an unknown and well-composed person walked near the main altar of the deity and began performing pooja with true devotion. Any body could mistake him for a true devotee. Before blinking your eyes he made an exit in a jiff. The fake devotee fled away with a silver crown (weighs 35 tolas of silver) of the idol. Besides, he took away Rs.15,000 cash from the ‘Hundi’ of the temple. That how did he carry out this daylight theft in the presence of so many devotees in the temple is a puzzle. When the temple priest arrived, he was in great pain to see the God's crown missing and immediately he informed the police. The Police saw the TV footage taken from the secret Camera and the culprit would be caught soon, the cops said.
https://www.siasat.com/thief-guise-devotee-steals-ornaments-temple-1737052/
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| A thief who used 'puja' as a ruse to steal, Hyderabad, India. www.siasat.com |
https://www.siasat.com/thief-guise-devotee-steals-ornaments-temple-1737052/
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Ranvir Shah of Chennai is a man with two faces. He was a successful businessman with a name for a long time, and the God was quite merciful with him and his future was quite safe with good financial security. But his perception of life changed when his ego and loss of contentment in life became a dominant force acting on him, he had begun to drift into a different field that is wrought with lots of dangers. Yes, he began collecting metal idols, artifacts, rare temple sculptures, etc without proper Govt. certification or legal records. The Idol Wing of Chennai, Govt of TN, got a tip off and their search on Sunday, 4 November, 2018 in his office in Guindy yielded five statues of 'vahanams' (god's mounts) at the venue and the officials said that they would soon take action to arrest Ranvir Shah. Earlier, the Idol Wing recovered over 200 idols and artifacts from his residence and farmhouse. Idol Wing DSP Sundaram said, "Several artifacts stolen from Tamil Nadu temples are hidden here. They are all statues of 'vahanams'. We got information that there were plans to smuggle these to foreign countries. So we got a search warrant from the Kumbakonam court. We found five vahanams of Perumal – rishabha vahanams. These are over 500 years old. A lot of these idols don’t have the necessary documentation."
Ranvir Shah's life is a good example of what will happen if our greed goes beyond the limit to the point of committing crime by laying hands on sanctified idols in the holy temples -tampering with any place of worship, be it church, mosque, Buddha vihara, mutts, etc is a despicable act.
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/latest-chennai-news-idol-thief-atm-robbery-gopalakrishnan
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| Stealing 1000kg stone bull (nandi), Andhra. .newindianexpress.com |
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/andhra-pradesh/2019/feb/02/15-held-for-stealing-1000-kg-nandi-idol-from-temple-in-andhra-pradesh-1933448.html
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